about as the predicted "long, hot summer" began in earnest, with riots and other uprisings of
Negroes occurring in suburban Philadelphia, in Rochester, in Brooklyn, in Harlem, and other
cities. The New York Times reported that a meeting of Negro intellectuals had agreed that Dr.
Martin Luther King could secure the allegiance of the middle and upper classes of Negroes, but
Malcolm X alone could secure the allegiance of Negroes at the bottom. "The Negroes respect Dr.
King and Malcolm X because they sense in these men absolute integrity and know they will never
sell them out. Malcolm X cannot be corrupted and the Negroes know this and therefore respect
him. They also know that he comes from the lower depths, as they do, and regard him as one of
their own. Malcolm X is going to play a formidable role, because the racial struggle has now
shifted to the urban North.. .if Dr. King is convinced that he has sacrificed ten years of brilliant
leadership, he will be forced to revise his concepts. There is only one direction in which he can
move, and that is in the direction of Malcolm X." I sent a clipping of that story to Malcolm X in
Cairo.
In Washington, D.C. and New York City, at least, powerful civic, private, and governmental
agencies and individuals were keenly interested in what Malcolm X was saying abroad, and were
speculating upon what would he say, and possibly do, when he returned to America. In upstate
New York, I received a telephone call from a close friend who said he had been asked to ask me
if I would come to New York City on an appointed day to meet with "a very high government
official" who was interested in Malcolm X. I did fly down to the city. My friend accompanied me to
the offices of a large private foundation well known for its activities and donations in the civil-
rights area. I met the foundation's president and he introduced me to the Justice Department Civil
Rights Section head, Burke Marshall. Marshall was chiefly interested in Malcolm X's finances,
particularly how his extensive traveling since his Black Muslim ouster had been paid for. I told him
that to the best of my knowledge the several payments from the publisher had financed Malcolm
X, along with fees he received for some speeches, and possible donations that his organization
received, and that Malcolm X had told me of borrowing money from his Sister Ella for the current
trip, and that recently the Saturday Evening Post had bought the condensation rights of the
book for a substantial sum that was soon to be received. Marshall listened quietly, intently, and
asked a few questions concerning other aspects of
Malcolm X's life, then thanked me. I wrote to Malcolm X in Cairo that night about the interview. He
never mentioned it.
The Saturday Evening Post flew photographer John Launois to Cairo to locate Malcolm X and
photograph him in color. The magazine's September 12issue appeared, and I sent a copy by
airmail to Malcolm X. Within a few days, I received a stinging note, expressing his anger at the
magazine's editorial regarding his life story. (The editorial's opening sentence read, "If Malcolm X
were not a Negro, his autobiography would be little more than a journal of abnormal psychology,
the story of a burglar, dope pusher, addict and jailbird-with a family history of insanity-who
acquires messianic delusions and sets forth to preach an upside-down religion of 'brotherly'
hatred.") I wrote to Malcolm X that he could not fairly hold me responsible for what the magazine
had written in a separate editorial opinion. He wrote an apology, "but the greatest care must be
exercised in the future."
His return from Africa was even more auspicious than when he had returned from the Hajj
pilgrimage to Mecca. A large group of Negroes, his followers and well-wishers, kept gathering in
the Overseas Arrival Building at Kennedy Airport. When I entered, white men with cameras were
positioned on the second level, taking pictures of all the Negroes who entered, and almost as
obvious were Negro plain-clothesmen moving about. Malcolm's greeters had draped across the
glass overlooking the U.S. Customs Inspection line some large cloth banners on which were
painted in bold letters, "Welcome Home, Malcolm."
He came in sight, stepping into one of the Customs Inspection lines; he heard the cheering and
he looked up, smiling his pleasure.